Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T08:14:45.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The empire strikes back: Some responses to Bruineberg and colleagues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2022

Maxwell J. D. Ramstead*
Affiliation:
Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UKmaxwell.d.ramstead@gmail.com VERSES Research Lab and Spatial Web Foundation, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA

Abstract

In their target paper, Bruineberg and colleagues provide us with a timely opportunity to discuss the formal constructs and philosophical implications of the free energy principle. I critically discuss their proposed distinction between Pearl and Friston blankets. I then critically assess the distinction between inference with a model and inference within a model in light of instrumentalist approaches to science.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Friston, K., Heins, C., Ueltzhoffer, K., Da Costa, L., & Parr, T. (2021). Stochastic chaos and Markov blankets. Entropy (Basel), 23(9), 1220. doi:10.3390/e23091220CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giere, R. N. (1999). Science without laws. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Giere, R. N. (2010). Scientific perspectivism. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ramstead, M. J., Constant, A., Badcock, P. B., & Friston, K. J. (2019). Variational ecology and the physics of sentient systems. Physics of Life Reviews, 31, 188205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramstead, M. J., Friston, K. J., & Hipólito, I. (2020). Is the free-energy principle a formal theory of semantics? From variational density dynamics to neural and phenotypic representations. Entropy, 22(8), 889.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Fraassen, B. C. (1980). The scientific image. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar